Senate passes FMAP, whiffs on SUNY (update)

The SUNY empowerment plan was laid aside after its chances of passage were imperiled by the absence of Sen. Tom Duane, who according to a source was holed up in his office in an attempt to start his own round of “Let’s Make a Deal,” the game that’s so popular in the Senate Democratic Conference this summer.

Duane has now been coaxed out of his sanctum, which could allow the Democrats to take up the SUNY package again — if, that is, Duane votes in favor of it.

While the prior vote to approve a property tax cap and the subsequent FMAP contingency plan vote were fairly sedate — with several Republican members claiming the contingency plan grants too-expansive budget-cutting powers to the Budget Director — the SUNY vote was a barn-burner.

As expected, Sen. Ruben Diaz rose to decry what he said was a “day of shame” that would close doors to disadvantaged students — a call that was taken up by several GOP members.

During a long break in the voting, Buffalo’s Antoine Thompson — who supports the measure — fell into intense conversations, apparently to little avail, with Democratic colleagues including Jose Serrano and Ruth Hassell-Thompson. At one point, Hassell-Thompson gave Thompson a consoling pat and a tight smile: “You know I love you, but … ,” she said.

Thompson’s Buffalo colleague, Bill Stachowski, was noticeably impassive in the face of the bill’s difficulty.

When the voting resumed, Carl Kruger announced he was changing his vote to yes due to what he said was an “abhorrent” level of vote-swapping on the measure.

Republican John DeFrancisco rose to offer his analysis of Kruger’s action: The Finance Chair had just voted against his conscience on a meaningless one-house bill.

UPDATE: Senators tried a second time when Sen. Tom Duane had arrived in the chamber, but again could not round up 32 votes to pass the SUNY bill. It was then laid aside for the day.

That, combined with the fact that the bill was about to go down in flames, was quite enough for Deputy Majority Leader Jeff Klein, who asked that the bill be laid aside.

After approving the FMAP bill, the chamber stood at ease.

Update: The Senate returned — with 100 percent more Tom Duane — but despite much more huddled conversations failed to pull together the necessary votes for passage. Following a brief hubbub in which it appeared GOP members might be willing to throw votes at the measure, Klein once again laid the measure aside — this time for the day.

The chamber then gaveled out of extraordinary session and into regular session. The Rules and Finance committees are now meeting. Fasten your seatbelts for a long night: The Rules report includes more than 15 bills, including numerous housing bills and the hydrofracking moratorium.